She stared up at him, wanting to believe him, but she couldn’t help the doubt creeping in. “What if Pierre finds us before we can get out of here?” she asked.
“Then, my sweetie pie babycakes,” he said, taking a stepback and grabbing a book from the shelf, placing it in her hands, “you’d better start reading.”
He winked and smiled, trying his damnedest not to let her spiral into despair.
“Sweetie pie babycakes?” she asked, casting him a skeptical look.
“Too much?”
She laughed and rolled her eyes before nudging him out of the way and grabbing a stack of books that she promptly set on the table before plopping down beside them.
Hours. They spent hours reading through various texts. Flipping through pages. Reshelving books that had nothing to do with Papantonis other than a brief mention of his existence. Every now and then, Andreas would come to check on them to see if they’d made any progress. But progress was fleeting.
Reading beside Theo was usually one of Dani’s favorite activities. Other guys would prefer not to waste their time together fingering pages of a book rather than fingering her. But with Theo, she’d never been more content than when they were sitting next to each other on her couch, engrossed in books. She’d never felt more…connectedto someone.
But not now. He’d written out the words she was supposed to be looking for—Παπατ?νης, Δημητρ?ου—but it didn’t matter. She’d never get the hang of Greek. She really should have spent more time trying to learn the language before her trip.
She laughed to herself at the thought of this still being a trip. Figures that her first international excursion would turn out to be a disaster. It was like the universe telling her she belonged in Grand Rapids and nowhere else.
Why had she even bothered leaving?
“What’s that face for?” Theo asked.
Dani looked up and blinked. “Face? What face?”
“You look annoyed.”
“Oh, that’s me thinking about how I’m never leaving Grand Rapids ever again.”
She closed another book and placed it on the stack to return to the shelf, making sure to keep things orderly to make it as easy as possible for the librarians. People who pulled dozens of library books and jumbled them out of order were the bane of her existence.
“See, I leave Grand Rapids and bad things happen,” she said, taking another book and flipping straight to the back. Παπατ?νης, Δημητρ?ου? Παπατ?νης, Δημητρ?ου? Nothing.
Slam.
“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Theo asked, sounding somewhat concerned.
“How can I not? Move away for college? Dad gets in an accident. Go to Europe? I get kidnapped. The cards are stacked against me.”
“You know your dad’s accident had nothing to do with you leaving. And this?” he said, putting his arms up and motioning to their situation, “This is pure dumb luck.”
“You mean bad luck,” she grumbled.
“Maybe the problem isn’t that you left Grand Rapids. The problem might be that you haven’t left enough.”
Dani stopped what she was doing to look at him. She was surprised by the sincerity in his eyes. The worry that she might actually believe the things that were coming out of her mouth. She’d never told anyone how she’d felt about sticking around Grand Rapids. She wasn’t sureshecould trust the words coming out of her mouth, either.
“I thought…I thought I’d be doing something differentwith my life, is all. I look at you, and you’re the director of…of…” Damn it, she couldn’t remember what exactly Theo did. “Director of fancy shit,” she said, and he laughed. “Adulting. Traveling the world. Going tofancycharity auctions with your well-behaved Triple G girlfriends who’ve got their shit together. Living in yourfancyrow house. And here I am, living in my parents’ garage. No wait…I’m sorry. Iwasliving in my parents’ garage until they decided to sell it.”
“Juicy,” he said, scooting closer to her, “first off, I don’t think I’ve ever described a single aspect of my life as ‘fancy.’ Second, don’t whittle your life down to your living arrangements. You’re so fucking smart—you got your master’s degree while working full-time in a year. You’re brave and don’t put up with anyone’s bullshit, mine included. And you’re the most caring person I’ve ever met, putting your family first when they needed help.”
“Only because I was scared,” she said, her voice quivering. “And they didn’t…they didn’t even need me. That’s what my parents told me before I left on this trip. I feel like no one needs me. Watch, I’m going to become an old cat lady librarian.”
“Ineed you.”
His words caught her off guard—and seemed to catch him off guard, too.
Theo cleared his throat and stood up, running his hand through his hair before setting the book he’d been holding on to the stack with the others.
